Kari & Adam’s Wedding | Now Amber Puerto Vallarta Wedding

Ohhhh the memories from this trip down to Mexico. Some of my favourite moments were when Kari’s Grandmother was around, watching Kari’s very memorable facial expressions during the surprises, the speeches and all those awesome hugs. It is very very clear that Adam is smitten and totally in love with Kari, watching him during the ceremony had me working EXTRA hard to not cry myself and still be able to see through my camera viewfinder. Ohhh…. And the party… The shotski!!! Such an amazing trip and wedding this was and the icing on the cake was leaving with 2 new close friends to me. Kari & Adam, you’re stuck with me for years now! haha! xo.

I asked Kari & Adam what their fav memories were, advice to future planning destination brides & what working with us CRAZY photographers was like, here is their words:

I loved how emotional our wedding was. We really made it about who we are, the people we love and the family traditions that mean the most to us.
I have so many favorite parts about our wedding but probably my most favorite was that I was able to wear my Grandmothers pearls. They were a gift from my Grandfather and it is family tradition to wear the pearls. My mother and two cousins both wore them on their wedding day. This wedding it was extra emotional as my Grandfather had passed away a month and a half before the wedding so it felt really good to wear them in honor of him and I felt like I carried a little piece of him with me that day by wearing the pearls.My second favorite part of the wedding was the ceremony in the sunset. The weather was perfect and our officiant, who is a close friend of ours, wrote our vows. We had no idea what he was going to say so it was nice to have it be spontaneous for us. The surprise wedding band that Adam planned blew me away. Jessie already made the ceremony emotional and then when it came time to put the rings on my husband surprised me with the wedding band that we had decided to buy later. I couldn’t hold it together after that and all the emotion of the day came flooding out in that moment. There was some ugly crying for sure, haha.

I honestly loved how we didn’t know what was going to happen next at our wedding. We didn’t dictate to our MC what she should say we just let her do her thing and it was amazing. Another family tradition on the Norwegian side of the family is to have an Norwegian wedding cake. Joan surprised us by baking the cake in Canada and bringing it all the way to Mexico. With the help of my mom they made icing and put it all together to surprise us once again. My Grandpa did a Norwegian toast. Our dear friends who couldn’t make the wedding helped make the surprise shot ski that was the life of the party. I have never laughed so hard or cried so much as I did that day.

My advice to destination planning is to get started with your wedding planner right away. I priced everything to more people then I thought would come so instead of feeling like it was costing more it actually cost less once we got our final headcount but we were prepared if more decided to come. Then financially we didn’t feel overwhelmed. It was important for me to have the wedding feel like a vacation so having all the details worked out before we left helped decrease the stress. The best advice I was given is that you cannot please everyone so do what you want. Instead of asking yourself what will look best ask yourself ” how do I want to feel?, how do I want my guests to feel?” . No one remembers your center pieces, they remember how they felt on that day. They remember if they danced up a storm, if they cried, if they laughed. If they felt connected to the bride and groom and if they could feel the love. This also goes for the bride and groom. I only remember how i felt and not the little details. The day of I made a vow that I would love every minute of the wedding even if things went wrong. If you can, give over the control to others and you will have some fun surprises like we did. Also, remember that silk does not breathe when choosing your wedding dress. My dress was like being in a body bag once I got hot and sweaty. If your reception is outside choose a wedding dress that can breathe with some sweating because that will happen!

Sofia has always been my favorite photographer since I first saw her on Facebook. She is a genius with lighting! I love how she captures the elements in her photo’s, how they have a dramatic flare but still manages to capture the human emotion of the photo so it doesn’t feel to magazine. I was in awe of her talent. What I enjoyed
most about working with Sofia is her laid back spirit. I wanted someone who would give direction good as I often feel awkward in front of the camera but also someone who thinks outside of the box and is not afraid to do something artsy or different. She knew exactly what I wanted and in our small time frame from wedding to reception managed to fit in so many gorgeous pictures and get all the family photos. I loved how she suggested going to Sayulita for the day and she is willing to go the extra mile to take extraordinary pictures for her clients. She captured so many spontaneous, emotion filled moments of our wedding rather then posed pictures. I loved that Sofia and Adam were so easy to get along with and that you became a part of our group